FIMS_PBL1.pdf

1446 H Medical Education Unit College of Medicine Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University [FOUNDATION OF INTEGRATED MEDICAL SCIENCES MODULE] Year 2: Problem 1  Problem 1 A Voyage Inside The Ce...

1446 H Medical Education Unit College of Medicine Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University [FOUNDATION OF INTEGRATED MEDICAL SCIENCES MODULE] Year 2: Problem 1  Problem 1 A Voyage Inside The Cell! Year 2, Module 1: FIMS By analogy with the famous novel: the Fantastic Voyage, Noof, who is a second year medical student with an interest in science fiction, wrote a story on another imaginary voyage but inside a human cell. She wrote: “to explore this mysterious world, the voyage started by a scientific team using a submarine-like vehicle. The vehicle was designed to accommodate the team members as well as their tools and survival kits. After the team boarding, the vehicle was treated technically to shrink its size to less than 7µm then it was injected in the body of a human volunteer”. The vehicle fumbled its way toward one of the cells where it was encountered by very high and tight wall that was surrounding the whole cell. The different possible pathways for crossing this wall were defined ahead and the team was aware by different natural mechanisms of transport across the cell wall and the most possible pathway they can follow. The pathway they took was considered the most convenient for the crossing of the vehicle as a relatively big and solid particle. According to this pathway, the vehicle was apt to being destructed inside the cell by one of the natural defense mechanisms. After entrance to the cell, the vehicle floated in a clear, jelly-like fluid that was filling the whole inside of the cell and surrounding all of the internal structures. Within sight, the nucleus appeared separate from the surrounding structures and materials in the cell by an envelope that contained pores. In the vicinity of the nucleus, there were two types of organelles floating in the jelly-like medium. The first was a network of tubular and flat vesicular structures in the cytoplasm. The other structure that was found near the nucleus 1 Medical Education Unit, College of Medicine, PSAU, 1446 h. was composed of four or more stacked layers of thin, flat, enclosed vesicles lying near one side of the nucleus. The vehicle then resumed the journey in the jelly-like medium around some vesicles surrounded by a membrane. These vesicles used to uptake substances then repel them again but in a digested form. Also there were globular-shaped organelles with a double membrane. The inner membrane was enfolded many times, forming a series of projections inside the lumen. Through one of the pores in the nuclear envelop, the vehicle entered to the nucleus. Inside the nucleus, there was a central dense and spherical mass as well as helical threads tightly coiled many times around protein units. According to Noof’s story, the voyage came to an end but left a number of questions about the nature of these cellular structures in relation to what was studied in the College of Medicine. Also, there were inquiries about the functions and processes that take place inside each one of these organelles. But the most triggering question raised by Noof was about the alternative pathways the team can follow to get out again from the cellular cave! 2 Medical Education Unit, College of Medicine, PSAU, 1446 h.